MIAMI BEACH – Recent scientific discoveries about the myriad of ways a women with HER2 receptor–positive breast cancer can develop treatment resistance is spurring the development of some promising agents, Mark D. Pegram, MD, said at the annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference, held by Physicians’ Education Resource.
The antibody-drug conjugate T-DM1 holds significant potential, for example, because it seems to confer benefit regardless of a patients’ PIK3CA mutation status, said Dr. Pegram, director of the breast cancer oncology program at Stanford Women’s Cancer Center in California. Other antibody-drug conjugates and additional types of agents are showing enough promise overall that Dr. Pegram is predicting a bright future for improving treatment of this patient population.
Creating a number of new agents is a good thing, Dr. Pegram said in a video interview, because it’s unlikely any one therapy will work for everyone with HER2 treatment-resistant breast cancer. Therefore, precision medicine is expected to guide individual therapeutic choices in the future.
Dr. Pegram disclosed that he is a consultant for Genetech, Novartis, Oncothyreon, and Pfizer.